Ahead of Hillary Clinton’s presidential announcement on Sunday, former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee took a page out of Barack Obama’s 2008 playbook and attacked Clinton’s Iraq vote while also declaring that Clinton had “precious few” accomplishment as secretary of state.
“What kind of accomplishments did you have? There were precious few,” Chafee said on CNN’s State of the Union.
Chafee, who has formed a presidential exploratory committee, also said Clinton did not do her homework before her vote in favor of the Iraq War last decade, which he said was a “big motivator for why I’m running.”
“That was a moment where the premise for going to Iraq was so false that there were weapons of mass destruction, she didn’t do her homework. We live with the ramifications,” Chafee said. “You may say that’s 12 years ago — that’s a big motivator for me running. If you show a lack of judgment, lack of doing homework then, what can we expect in the future?”
In 2008, anti-war activists helped fuel Barack Obama’s rise in early voting states like Iowa and eventually helped power him to the nomination. Obama’s anti-war stance angered former President Bill Clinton, who infamously said it was the “biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen,” which led Obama supporters to think Clinton was talking about Obama’s candidacy.
It’s a different story in 2016 as the candidate left-wing activists want to challenge Clinton (Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren) has said she will not run. Chafee said he hoped to gain Warren’s supporters if he enters the race. Chafee, the former Republican-turned-independent governor, said he is now “very comfortable” as a Democrat.
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